One Night Stand
by Nudeym00gle
Summary: 'We had a one night stand, but somehow we keep bumping into each other' Gerome/Inigo Modern AU.


Inigo looked over to the naturally well built twenty six year old beside him and couldn't help but smile internally. After breaking up from his last girlfriend 6 months ago, he was heartbroken, the two of them dated for almost a year and a half until he found out she had been sleeping with another man for just over a month. Gerome had stayed by his side to comfort him since they broke up, the two of them had been working in a local coffee shop together, since graduating from University, though Gerome had left a few weeks ago owing to starting an internship at a local Game Development studio.  
They didn't expect to have ended up in bed together, naked, and exhausted after what was supposed to have been 'a quiet evening in with Pizza between friends'. They held hands and felt extremely awkward.

"Did… Did you expect that happen?" asked Inigo, to which Gerome grunted in response.

"I'm not sure, to be completely honest. I didn't realise you were actually gay."

"I'm not gay. I like both men and women." retorted Inigo

Gerome sat up and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh… I didn't realise…"

"Well, you never asked," the dancer replied, heatedly.

"Well, we've only known each other for what? Eight months?"

"That's true, though I'm surprised you never noticed me flirting with that gay artist that comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"Who? The guy that always orders a toasted cheese and ham croissant and a black coffee?"

"Yeah, the one with the lip piercing," said Inigo with a cheeky smile.

Gerome chuckled and reached to the night stand to get the glass of water.

"I suppose he's pretty attractive," he replied with a nod

Inigo looked over and smirked. Gerome handed him the glass of water and Inigo gulped down the rest of the liquid voraciously.

"I never realised you liked men either," Inigo stated, looking at the man with a twinkle in his eye.

"Have you ever seen me with a woman or hear me talk about them?" came the reply

"Touche,"

There was another awkward silence between the two of them, before Gerome leaned over and gave Inigo another deep keep. He wrapped his muscular arms around his slim waist and drew him closer, Inigo's hands against the dark haired man's chest, his fingers tracing his six pack, Gerome's right hand snaked up the smaller man's back and entangled his hair, gently pulling his dark brown hair. Inigo could feel his heart flutter in excitement, it felt like it was going to burst and come out of his mouth, he had never felt this way before, out of all the attractive girls he managed to get to come back with him to his apartment, this was something that was all together more perfect than anything he could imagine. He could feel the flush run up to his face, he could feel his face heat up and his crotch tighten once again. Gerome pulled away grinning.

"Your face, neck and chest are bright red,"

"Don't look! It's embarrassing!" Inigo covered himself hurriedly.

"Why are you embarrassed?" asked Gerome, concerned.

"This… I-I get this whenever I'm really turned on… I hate it."

"I think it's hot," Gerome put his thumb in Inigo's mouth and turned the slimmer, younger man's head to the side and latched onto his neck, Inigo gave a strangled moan and squirmed underneath the weight of the man on top.

"You're such a beautiful man, Inigo" Gerome continued to kiss the other man's neck and trailed up to his mouth

"Fuck… Gerome…" was Inigo's breathless reply,

"Do you want to do it again?" Gerome whispered in Inigo's ear.

"God yes, just fuck me,"

They spent the last 30 minutes of being conscious, making love, slowly and with consideration, their kisses full of anticipation, Gerome stopping to kiss the inside of Inigo's thigh, and watching as the slim twenty one year old, wriggled and moaned in pleasure, tears gathering to the corner of his eyes. The two collapsed, covered in each other's release and after cleaning each other up, they fell asleep in each others arms.

* * *

Inigo slowly woke up, his eyes fluttering. He turned over in his bed and noticed that Gerome had gone; he looked around at the open plan apartment and was about to call out before realising that Gerome had said that he had work early that morning. With an air of vulnerability, Inigo put on a pair of boxers and began to clean up the scene of their post coital encounter; the sheets for sure needed to be washed, there were Pizza boxes still on the sitting room sofa and they knocked over a lamp in an unbridled fit of spontaneity that lead them to the bed. God he needed a cup of coffee and a cigarette.

* * *

It had been a week since Inigo and Gerome had their encounter at Inigo's apartment and the aspiring dancer hadn't heard one word from the other. He'd tried to call and text, and even left Facebook messages, but nothing. Nada, Zilch. Inigo was trying to make the coffee for a lunch time order, and was finding it increasingly difficult. All he could think about was sex, sex, sex. The moaning, sweat, the orgasm, sucking on Gerome's massive di-

"Inigo! Snap out of it, there's a line, get the cash register!" called one of his colleagues

Inigo jumped and was suddenly pulled back to reality, much to his chagrin. Apologising quickly, he ran to the register after finishing making the previous coffee's and began to keep his mind busy to prevent it from wandering around to perverted places. He looked up to ask the next customer what they wanted and he felt his heart drop. It was Gerome.

"Alright?" his handsome lover asked

"Y-yes, I" his voice broke and he stammered and he could feel the blush rising to his cheeks

"A medium cappuccino and one of those chocolate muffins for take out,"

"Of course," replied Inigo, nervously

Inigo got a paper bag and placed one of the muffins into it and called out Gerome's order

"You seem on edge today…" asked Gerome, curiously

"Well… I-I mean.. I've tried calling you and stuff and you've not replied…" answered Inigo, feeling rejected

"Oh yeah, well we've got this brief for this new mobile game that I'm working on, so I've got a lot of stuff going on right now, I'm not trying to ignore you or anything," Gerome handed Inigo a £10 note and the brunette began to sort out his change. He was trying hard to believe the man in front of him, he wanted to act non-committal but not so much that he appeared nonchalant.

"Oh, that's ok! I didn't realise… I mean… I didn't know whether you wanted to meet up again sometime?" Inigo managed to stutter,

"We'll see, this project is massive, I've been bogged down with so much work… I'll give you a call when I'm free," Gerome replied with such calm it almost disheartened Inigo, he wanted Gerome to show the same face he saw when they were together alone.

"Ok, well… good luck with everything, hopefully hear from you soon," Inigo gave his most attractive smile, that probably came over being awkward and needy.

And then it happened.

Gerome winked at him as he took his muffin and walked to the end of the bar to get his coffee. Inigo just wanted to die, he got a wink from him. He felt his knees weaken and his palm's sweat, and that was when he realised, that he had fallen so hard for the most unattainable man.

* * *

Food shopping was probably one of the most stressful days of the week, for one Inigo was pretty much broke and therefore couldn't afford much, aside from Ramen noodles, frozen vegetables, ready meals and bread for toast, secondly he was painfully indecisive. The twenty one year old was skimming the aisle for canned soup and trying to decide what flavours he wanted, when he suddenly felt himself walk into someone, he turned around to apologise and low and behold it was older man he simultaneously wanted, yet didn't want to see. It had been yet another five days without so much as a 'hello' or a 'how are you' and Inigo was becoming inpatient and weathered down.

"Well, hi there," smiled Gerome

Inigo was taken by surprise and took a step back to observe the man.

"Hi yourself," replied Inigo

Suddenly another man appeared from behind Gerome and gave a smirk.

"Oh, yeah this is a friend from work, Derek meet, Inigo. We used to work together at the coffee shop."

Inigo's heart leaped. Who was this guy? 'Friend from work', he felt the jealousy stick in his throat, the guy was too attractive to be just a friend.

"Ah, I've heard a lot about you, nice to meet you. Shopping for the week?"

Shit. What did that mean? 'I've heard a lot about you'?

"Uh, yeah. I'm pretty broke at the moment though, so it's not an exciting time…" sighed Inigo

"Ah I know that feeling, I can't believe it was seven years since I was last at University, twenty one, and had no money."

Inigo gave a forced laugh. Seven years? That would make him a year older than Gerome. God damn. He had no chance, why would Gerome want to be with a poor, young graduate when he could get with successful, working, older men?

"Well I graduated a few months ago, but I'm working, trying to pay the bills." Inigo replied, feeling awkward

"I know the pain, you'll get something well paid."

"Well, Inigo wants to become a dancer, don't you?" Gerome mentioned

The slimmer man flushed, that was something he told close friends, not random people in the canned food aisle at Tesco.

"A dancer? Like, Ballet dancing?"

"Yeah…" Inigo replied quietly

"That's cool… I've heard it's pretty impossible to get into places like the Royal Ballet though,"

"Well, Inigo is probably one of the most talented dancers I've seen, Derek,"

Inigo scratched the back of his neck, he could feel the anxiety flooding his head, his dancing was something he hated discussing, especially with strangers, he found it hard enough going through school doing Ballet and getting shit for it constantly everyday for years.

"Um, I'm going now, I've got an… early day tomorrow," he tried to get out the situation as calmly and as quickly as possible without embarrassing himself further.

"Oh, alright, well it was nice to meet you," replied Derek

Inigo went to turn around and hurriedly leave when he heard-

"Listen, Inigo…"

The dancer twirled around and looked at Gerome.

"Sorry I haven't called you… I promise, I will do when everything's calmed down at the studio."

Inigo pushed a smiled and nodded understandingly.

"It was good to see you again," Gerome gave a smile

Inigo was hoping for a wink, but it never came, so he instead waved and walked off, quietly and dejectedly and he cursed himself for not trying to push for a longer conversation with the man he had been dreaming about for the past week.

* * *

Three weeks, four days and counting.

This was just becoming dire and Inigo was in a desperate situation. He was starting to spend more time around his phone than he did doing anything else. He just wanted to hear from Gerome and nothing was coming and he was becoming a man obsessed. He was walking into Gerome everywhere and a lot of the time he was with that guy Derek. In Greggs buying a Cornish Pasty, in Waterstones in the fiction section, in H&amp;M looking for shirts, in Tesco buying tobacco for roll ups, it was becoming exhausting trying to avoid Gerome so he didn't have to see him together with -the-Good-looking-work-colleague and even his friends were becoming concerned.

"Dude, you are coming to the pub tonight."

"Owain, please…" protested Inigo, weakly

Inigo and his friends Owain, Brady and Severa were having lunch at a cheap cafe that was a meeting ground for poor students.

"Nope, not 'aving it, yer investing waaay too much time and emotional energy into this Gerome guy." replied Brady

"What's so special about this guy anyway? I've never met him," asked Severa

Inigo sighed and rolled his eyes to avert contact with his friends who were grilling him.

"He's like…. He's attractive, he's five years older than I am… He makes and codes video games for a living, he's doing an internship at this studio for a while… He's funny, and secretly warm hearted…"

His three friends looked at each other with suspicion.

"You've slept with the guy haven't you?" Severa blurted out

Inigo was taken aback and tried to spit out a meaningful sentence, he could feel the blush rising in his cheeks

"You have haven't you?!" Owain's voice was riling

"Guys please…" Inigo covered his face with his hand, feeling humiliated

"Inigo… Ya know ya fall in love with anyone ya fuck" replied Brady, exasperated

"I do not!" the dancer retorted

"What about that girl that you had sex with, within the first month of being at Uni, the girl on the same dance course as you?" asked Owain

"That was different, I thought she felt the same way…"

"And the girl that was on the stage design team," asked Severa

"That girl what dated ya for 4 months, she worked on the jewelry stall at Camden," quipped Brady

"The girl who liked to call you 'daddy' in the bedroom," Severa reminded

"Guys, STOP."

Inigo was on the verge of tears. His three friends were sat, mouths sealed

"Seriously, fuck sake guys. You could be more supportive."

"Dude, you literally broke up with Jessie six months ago, you've been mourning ever since, you should be using this time to get over her cheating on you, rather than be off scouting your next great love." Owain sighed

"I- I wasn't planning on this happening… I… We used to work together and… I- I just invited him over, just to spend the evening together as friends, and it just happened… I don't even know how we ended up doing it."

There was a strained silence.

"Is he Bi too?" asked Severa

Inigo shook his head.

"No, he's gay."

"Have you told-" Severa started to say

"Yeah I did, he didn't mind really. I didn't even realise that he swung that way,"

"Well as long as he isn't going to do what that guy did when we were in college, and dump you when he found out that you were bisexual." replied Owain

"I don't think so…" replied Inigo, biting his lip, his hands sitting in his lap

"Well, anyway, you're coming out tonight, Yarne, Laurent and Lucina are spending the weekend in London, the first time we've seen them since we all graduated…" stated Owain

"Are Laurent and Lucy still dating?" asked Brady

"Yeah," replied Severa

"Good god, they've been going out since they were in the last year of Sixth Form, haven't they?" asked Inigo

"I think they're planning on getting engaged…" said Severa, taking a sip of her tea.

"Wait, what?!" Owain was stunned, as were Inigo and Brady

"Yeah, Lucina told me that it had been brought up in conversation one evening,"

"Shit me," replied Brady

"I don't know when they're doing it or anything, but it's been mutually agreed that they'd at some point like to be engaged," Severa clarified

Inigo chewed on his thumb nail, feeling rather inadequate, in the knowledge that Laurent and Lucina had found each other and were planning on spending the rest of their lives together, already at the age of Twenty-two; and there he was pining after an older man, while he worked nine to five at a minimum wage job, while trying to get the courage to apply for a Ballet company.

He mentally berated himself for being a piece of shit.

* * *

Inigo forced himself to shower and dress up nicely, the change of plans meant they weren't going to the quiet pub down the street from where he lived, they were instead going bar hopping in Covent Garden, because apparently frugality wasn't a lifestyle any of them were capable of sustaining. Inigo put in his rows of ear piercings, a hoop in the cartilage of his upper right ear, and he turned his head sideways, both ways, to check out his attempt of accessorizing. When he liked what he saw in the mirror, he grabbed his bag and keys and left for a night of forced socialization.

* * *

Owain, Yarne, Lucina, Laurent, Brady and Severa were all at a bar called 'Cellar Door' and had already managed to get a table and chairs in a corner. Inigo remembered the last time they came here he paid almost £9 for cocktail and then cried the next day looking at his bank account, but he was bribed to come out tonight with free drinks, so he couldn't complain too much.

He saw Lucina standing at the bar and waved, Lucina skipped through the crowd towards him.

"Inigo! I haven't seen you in ages! How are you?"

"I'm fine, where's everyone else?" he smiled upon seeing his good friend,

"They're over there,"

Lucina pointed over to the corner and Inigo could see Laurent's head.

"Do you want a drink?" she asked, trying to carry her voice over the music and the volume of the all the people.

"Yeah, just get me some Asahi, I'll see you at the table,"

Lucina agreed and Inigo tried to fight his way through the crowded club to the table, suddenly a shove sent him flying, but before he hit the floor someone caught him, he looked up and he thought his heart had stopped beating.

"Fancy seeing you here!" said Gerome smiling

"Hi…." Inigo struggled to say, as he was lifted back up to a standing position.

"What are you doing here?"

"I-My-I'm.. with my- my friends, they're over there…" Inigo pointed randomly across the club, he was so flustered he couldn't concentrate.

"Well good news is, I finally have time on my hands, so if you want to get together and spend some time with each other I'm-"

Suddenly, Derek appeared from behind Gerome and placed his hand on Gerome's shoulder.

"Well, hello Inigo, nice to see you again,"

Inigo tried his hardest not to scowl at the man, but couldn't help but feel inadequate in his presence. There was Gerome and Derek both in a smart-casual suit piece and him in a pair of skinny jeans and a tight checked shirt, showing off how slight his frame was.

"Derek, do you mind waiting at the table with everyone else, I'll be there later."

He nodded and gave Inigo a knowing smile and they continued to stare at each other while Derek walked back to their table.

"Inigo, are you ok?" asked Gerome with concern

"Are-" he stopped

"What?"

Inigo steeled his nerves and swallowed his pride.

"Are you and that Derek guy dating?" asked Inigo

Gerome stared quizzically.

"Why are you asking?"

Inigo felt his stomach drop.

"Well… I've seen you two together often, and… you seem kinda close."

"You really think I'd be off screwing another guy, almost a month after last having been with you?" Gerome asked curiously

Inigo shrugged in confusion.

"I-I don't know,"

Gerome cocked his head, then shook it.

"No, we're not dating,"

Inigo mentally breathed a sigh of relief.

"So who are you with tonight?"

"Oh, I'm with some friends from back home, some of us stayed here in London after we all graduated, three of my friends have come to stay the weekend, we all wanted to come out just because we can,"

"I thought you were broke?" Gerome smirked

"I am, but I was bribed with free alcohol so I couldn't make any excuses for being an anti-social gremlin and staying at home."

Gerome gave a genuine laugh.

"Well look we're going to be here all night, so if you want to come join us at our table you're very welcome,"

"I think we were planning on heading to that Dirty Martini bar place next after an hour here,"

"Well, make sure you come to say goodbye before you do,"

Inigo could feel himself fall in love with the man in front of him, then Gerome completely caught him off guard and planted a kiss on his lips.

"I've missed you a lot over this month," the older man whispered gently in the dancer's ear.

Inigo felt like he had the wind knocked out of him, his head was swimming, he felt so over whelmed by every emotion, and so he grabbed the man's face and kissed him back and just wanted to be with him forever. He pulled away, his breath needy, and Gerome just smiled gently and stroked his cheek.

"I'll see you tomorrow," said Gerome

And he winked.

* * *

The two men were lying in Gerome's bed enjoying a post sex cigarette, Inigo bit his lip and stared at Gerome's hazel eyes. He took a last drag of the cigarette, exhaled and then kissed his lover's chest after stubbing it out in the ashtray. The sun was starting to go down and the sun's glare was penetrating through the window of the apartment, the two of them just enjoyed each others company in quiet serenity.

"Gerome?" Inigo asked, his head on Gerome's chest

"Yeah?"

"I think I love you,"

There was a pause, then Gerome shifted his body to face the younger man and cupped his hands around Inigo's face

"I love you too. You're the most beautiful man I've ever met and I want to be with you."

Inigo blushed and grinned

"Really?"

"Yeah, do you want to be with me?"

"Of course I do, you fucking idiot!"

The two laughed and Inigo kissed his new partner and mentally vowed to never let go.


End file.
